This startup lets anyone create beautiful data maps with one click - and they just raised $23 million from Accel and Salesforce

CartoDB

CartoDB wants to make it easy for anyone to create their own data-driven maps, and it just raised $23 million in Series B funding from the likes of Accel Partners and Salesforce ventures to help it do just that.

CartoDB wasn't created by tech industry veterans, but rather by two Spanish scientists who were fed up with not having better ways to communicate their results to the public.

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When it launched in 2011, CartoDB required that users had at least a general knowledge of statistics, but since then, the company has refocused. Now anyone who wants to can upload their data, select an option from "suggested" maps, and send out their finished map to the world with one click.

"You shouldn't have to be a data scientist to make use of location data," cofounder Sergio Alvarez says. "We're building something radical and creating the easiest mapping tool."

And that focus has impressed venture capitalists. This new investment brings CartoDB's total funding to $31 million, which will partially be used to supercharge product development. And beyond everyday users, CartoDB has developed an impressive client list that includes the city of New York, the National Park Service, Twitter, Google Trends, and Amtrak.

It's hard to understate the sheer amount of maps CartoDB can help you create. Here are some particularly interesting ones: